Regional comedy breaks French box-office record

PARIS (Reuters) - A warm-hearted comedy set in the chilly,
rain swept north of France has become the most successful
French film ever, breaking a 41-year-old record, its producers
Pathe said on Monday.

"Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis" (Welcome to the home of the
Ch'tis) has been seen by 17.405 million cinemagoers since its
release on February 27, against a total 17.267 million who went
to see the 1966 comedy "La Grande Vadrouille," Pathe said.

The film, about a postal worker from the hot south who is
transferred to a remote village in the north, is now on course
to beat France's all time box-office record, held by U.S.
melodrama "Titanic," which had more than 20 million viewers.

Made for a reported 11 million euros ($17.30 million) by
comedian Danny Boon, the film pokes fun at stereotypes about
the north, a region blighted by industrial decline whose
inhabitants are often stigmatized as backward, uncouth beer
drinkers.

Inevitably, the exiled postman learns to appreciate the
loveable cast of eccentrics he encounters, their customs and
their peculiar dialect.

Wildly popular among "Ch'tis" themselves in the north, the
film has attracted audiences across the whole country and
President Nicolas Sarkozy is even reported to have asked for a
special private screening in the Elysee Palace.

The prejudices that still exist against the region were
underlined by a banner unrolled at a recent football match
involving the northern club of Lens, reading "Pedophiles,
unemployed and inbred, Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis."

But the flood of outraged comment and the massive police
hunt for the opposition supporters behind the taunt has
underlined the effect the film has had.

(Writing by James Mackenzie and Crispian Balmer, editing by
Paul Casciato)